Greetings from Ireland.
I'm new to Macro photography and so far have been reading bits and pieces in different forums and
lurking on flicker. I used to develop my own B&W stuff myself as a teenager in the days of film as a hobby.
Roll on years later and into my late 30's and when it came up to the birth of my first child it gave me an excuse to have a mini mid life crisis and
go out and buy a digital SLR so I could capture moments as by child was growing up. It was my last expensive purchase before the Baby was born! :-)

I always liked macro but never did much as growing up only had close up filters for my Cannon A1 SLR and I had not heard of reversing a lens back then.
caught my eye. Now armed with a Nikon D5200 (all I could afford) So far anything Macro I've shot has been done mainly handheld with natural light so a lot of my shots
have bumped up ISO and at F22 (could be newbie mistake)

As money is tight for the forseeable future (living off 50euros a week after all the bills are paid) I cant afford any more expensive gear but long term would love
to buy a decent Tripod and macro rail. I've currently got the following kit. (If I'd known I'd have liked Macro I'd have gone cannon with the aim of someday
having enough to buy a Canon MP-E 65 bit hey I can always dream)

My Current Kit:
Nikon D5200
Sigma 105mm 2.8 HSM 1:1 macro lens
Just bought Polorid Extension tubes (68mm of tube)
Raynox 250 (have not used it sucessfully yet on top of the sigma lens)
Nikon SB700 flash + cheap diffuser.
I've also bought a copy of Zerene but I'm a novice at stacking.

I've two insects on my wish list that I would love to capture that are being elusive.
The Irish Jumping Spider and Dragon Flies. I've only seen a jumping spider a few times and have not got any decent shots yet and only seen dragon flies
twice this year where they were in flight and would not stay still.

I really like Iain Lawrie, Nicky Bay, Eddie The Bugman and Alexey Kljatov on flicker and would love to develop the skill they have with taking great shots.

I just got extension tubes a day or two ago and I'm not familiar with using a flash at such close range so
this is my setup that I plan on learning how to use:
(I've a few questions I'll ask in the beginners section of the forums)

Hello and welcome to this great forum.
Thank you for your story and especially for your setup photo.

BTW, the link that you gave don't take me to your gallery.
Please provide the link to your photostream.
I'd love to see the results.

P.S.
What is that flash bracket and the cable?
Can it support the flash with no problems?_________________--Paul--
You are invited to visit my galleries:
500px Gallery (where I post my best of the best)
Flickr Macro SetWiX Gallery

The Bracket itself is showing signs of the metal cracking at the bend.
The ball and socket joint is flimsy and does not really hold securely the flash and wobbles but its the only thing I have to work with at the moment.

Still getting used to the flash and only used the extension tubes once
but so far I'm liking them if I can snap whatever stays still.

which might be of some interest. Have a look at the pages and let me know if you have any questions - one thing I would say is if you're looking for a cheap method of higher magnification shots then it's worth considering a reversing adapter which are about £10.00 - that's how I started on the slippery slope to macro...

To be honest I haven't been out and about that much recently, never enough hours in the day, but I do still occasionally post thing to flickr although most of my stuff these days is done through facebook...